Giovanni Maier is an architect. No, not the traditional brick and mortar sense but a true architect of sound. With his latest CD “The talking bass” he is building musical bridges all over the map. The quartet he has assembled for the recording doesn’t just glow, they shine! Crossing and blurring the boundaries of music are what these guys do best and together they seem unstoppable.

There is a deep beauty and rawness in the sound of Giovanni’s compositions.

The bass gives us the illusion of being all places at once. Giovanni designs these musical structures but also puts the hammer to the nail himself, lays it down like a Ferrari on the autobahn and always has time to take us on a road untraveled.

The quartet including Emanuele Parrini on violin and viola, Luca Calabrese on trumpet and flugelhorn and Scott Amendola on drums plays out a ghostly game of cat and mouse that Giovanni lets unfold before out very ears.

The group constructs things that are not just ahead of the times, but seem to encompass all times. The ensemble allows us to become dreamers side by side with them. We get to wander hand and hand with these musical Griots and feel Giovanni’s bass not only talk, but sing.